Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-02-04
THREE SCORE AND TEN.
Observations on the Psalmist's Estimate of
Human Existence.
San Francisco Chronicle.

San Francisco Chronicle.
When the Psalmist fixed the limit of
mans life at three score and ten he does
not appear to have been aware of the nu-
merous exceptions to what his observa-
tions had led him to believe was a uni
versal rule. War was common in those
days, and it was next to impossible for
a man TO permit his life to
wear on. by the natural process
of decay unless he withdrew from
the world and lived the life of hermit
among mountains of the desert. If he
Staid at home he was sure to be drafted
into the army and end lis days prema-
turely. Where there were so many
causes of death other than natural it is
difficult to understand on what the sa-
cred writer based his average. Still it
must be acE nowledged that his estimate
of the maximum of human existence was
in measure justified by facts, and that
the standard he established
has, with or without reason,
been received by most persons
down to the present day. Yet the excep-
lions are numerous, far more numerous
than most people are aware of. Now
and then the newspapers get together a
few cases, all drawn from some particu-
lar country, which are quite insufficient
for the purpose of general illustration.
When the case of any one having passed
100 years Is quoted it is greeted with gen.
eral skepticism, and the proof, which
must chiefly depend on the memory of the
person himself, sneered at.
That any patriarch ever lived to the
age attributed to Methusaleh may well be
doubted, but from what we now know it
msy be inferred that the lives of some of
them nigh. have exceeded 200 years.
Though extreme longevity is not confined
to any country, 1t seems to have been
more common in mild or temperate eli
mates. Pliny the elder gives some Stats
tics regarding old age near the be-
ginning of the Christian era, from
which it appears that some persons
of whom he knew in ancient Italy lived
idus l20, Gorgias los, Coryinus 100, and
wife of Proman, g noble, died at lis,
after having borne fifteen children. Luce
la, Roman actress, remained on the
stage till she was 100 There were living
III Italy at one time, about this epoch,
IuI6t Iueu dSeu lfU, lOuI dStu lTOIn LOO
to 1871, and four aged $50. There were
also two women, one aged 1876 and the
other 1877.
There died in 1860, in the county of
York, in England, q man named Henry
Hawkins, who had reached 1862 Thomas
PR died in 1856, aged l52. In Germany
there was man still in service at 1856.
He died of weakness six months later.
John Essingham, soldier, died at IA.
A Danish sailor remained In that oc-
Cupation till he was 81. a: Ill he re-
married, and lived till l4s. 1t is hardly
possible that this soldier could have seen
much active service, while the life
Of the sailor must have been passed
with less than the ordinary
amount of hardship. Mention is made of
Pole who in 1896 had grandson aged
163 and son aged 81. A Norwegian
named John Surrington died at l60, leav-
ing one son aged l03 and another aged 9.
The elder brother might have been the
great great-grandfsther of the younger.
1t is affirmed that Scotchman named